What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when I say the word “Hybrid”? No, I’m not referring your neighbour’s green eco-friendly Toyota Prius. In my opinion, it’s just a fancy word for mixing two things together. Simple as that. NOT!

Genre hybridity is a really touchy topic that people tend to stray away from, because quite honestly, what is a hybrid genre?  We do have the films that are discretely combining 2 genres together, such as, Aliens Versus Cowboys (2011), directed by Jon Favreau, and films that make you question the genre of the film as a whole. Today, almost every film released draws genre tropes or conventions from other genres that may not be related to the original genre of the film. It is the need for repetition and variation to keep things news, but yet relatable to current audiences.

As mentioned in class this week, motives behind a filmmaker producing something that is hybrid could be for several reason, paying homage, making a parody, or a pastiche, or it could be all of the above. The film, Cabin in the Woods, 2011, directed by Drew Goddard, is a mix of horror, sci-fi, thriller and maybe action. Just when you think you know what’s happening or what’s about to happen, the story changes and offers a different twist. Jump scares, comic relief, action, terror, and romance, all tossed into the mix. You might think with something that tries to do everything at once, it might turn out bad like a restaurant trying to serve food from land, air and sea. But it was tastefully done, nothing that was too over the edge, and you could sense where the accents and beats of the film. At the end, viewers were left with the thought, “What just happened?”, but not in a loose ending way, more of a reflection of the film. It prompts the viewer to reflect on the entire feel to predict what happens in the end. Almost like the filmmaker wants you to write your own ending.

Genre hybridity has no solid grounds to stand on, no firm grip, and just when you think you’ve got what makes a genre hybrid, it changes its form, shapeshifting into something that would keep audiences and filmmakers on their toes for what’s there to come next. Can you think of a film that is made purely out of a single genre?